The 'Untouchables'
by Ebony-Jayne
Summary: Some of the worst cases are the one involving amoral, arrogant criminals who think that they are entitled to do anything they want, to anyone they please, and the law can't touch them; and the living, breathing family and friends who have suffered, sometimes brutally, at their hands. Case-fic. A little B/A friendship.
1. Prologue

Title: The 'Untouchables'

Author: Ebony-Jayne

Description: The worst part of their jobs is the amoral, arrogant criminals who think that they are entitled to do anything they want to anyone they please and the law can't touch them. and the living, breathing family and friends who have suffered, sometimes brutally, at their hands.

A/N: This one is going to be basically written like an episode. I know, I'm rusty. but this is my first publish in a couple of years so that's to be expected. Constructive criticism helps. Thanks for reading :)

Disclaimer: Much as I'd like to, I don't own them.

 _ **-L &O:CI-**_

"Hey Nat!" Penny greeted her colleague in the locker room as they got ready to go home after shift.

"Hey Penny," Natalie replied as she pulled her scrub top over her head.

"I keep meaning to ask you; how's Lianna doing after her fall?" Penny asked as she deposited her name tag and fob watch into a plastic box in her locker.

"Oh she's good, great," Natalie brightened as always at mention of her daughter. "Cast came off a couple days ago," she smiled at Penny.

"She been back on the horse yet?" Penny asked.

"Yeah, yeah she was right back on the next day," Natalie replied, eyes carefully not meeting Penny's.

"Good to hear," Penny smiled at her.

"Have a good night Pen, I'll see you on Monday," Natalie smiled guardedly as she picked up her bag and walked away.

"You too Nat," Penny called after her.

"She still going with that horse story?" Gloria Abbott asked as she came up to her own locker beside Penny and they watched the door close behind Natalie.

"Yep. Don't know who she thinks she's fooling," Penny replied. "We're all qualified trauma nurses. You saw Julianna's x-Ray right?"

"Big ugly spiral fracture of the left ulna and radius? Yeah I saw it," Gloria shook her head. "No way a topple off a horse does that. And Nat knows that as well as any of us."

"Do you think it's a cry for help?" Penny asked.

"I don't know," Gloria shrugged tiredly. "She lies like that knowing that we will see straight through it but then if anyone asks if everything is ok at home she clams up."

"Maybe he's telling her what to say and she's got no choice even though she knows we'll see through it?" Penny posited.

"Wouldn't be surprised," Gloria answered.

"I wish there was something we could do for them," Penny sighed.

"You and me both," Gloria sighed back. "But she just won't take the help."

 _ **-L &O:CI-**_

"Hey Nat," Leon beamed at her as she walked into the store.

"Hey Leon," she replied as she walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a carton of milk.

"Are you and the Mr off to the Hamptons this weekend?" Leon asked as he rang up her purchase.

"Not this weekend," Natalie smiled, handing over a ten. "We're just having a quiet one at home."

"Well, whatever you do, you guys have a good one OK?" he beamed as he handed her change back.

"I will Leon, thank you," Natalie replied as she picked up her milk. "See you next time."

"See you Nat," Leon waved goodbye.

 _ **-L &O:CI-**_

Natalie climbed out of the car and grabbed her bag and the carton of milk. Locking the car door she headed toward the stairs, sorting through her keys for the door key as she went.

When she reached their apartment door she moved to put the key in the door and froze when the door moved inwards under her touch.

Hesitantly she opened the door and stepped inside, it was pitch dark. She started to feel nervous, Mark and Lianna should have been home. She stepped into the foyer and after groping around for a moment she found the switch and flipped the light on.

"Mark?" she called. "Lianna- ugh!" Something heavy crashed down on the back of her head. She fell to her knees, milk and her bag flying out of her hands and onto the floor. She screamed as she was grabbed roughly by the right shoulder and thrown over onto the ground, landing flat on her back. The object came at her again. Pain shot through her head and her vision began greying out as the object came down again.

"No," Natalie croaked out. "No!" She screamed again as the object rose and fell once more.

The world turned black then and there was nothing.

 _ **-L &O:CI-**_

"911 what is your emergency?"

"My wife! Oh god my wife!"

"Sir? Sir can you tell me what happened?"

"She's dead! Someone killed my wife!"

 _ **-L &O:CI-**_


	2. Chapter 1

Chapter One:

-L&O:CI-

"What have we got?" Detective Robert Goren questioned Officer Alvarez as they ducked under the police tape across the apartment door.

"Natalie Savage, 41, found bashed to death in the foyer by her husband," Alvarez paused a moment as Bobby stepped away to wander the foyer, seemingly not listening. "We responded to the 911 call from Savage's landline. Got in here and he's covered in blood and babbling at us non-stop. There's crap strewn all around the apartment, looks like they were looking for something or maybe robbery gone bad?" He finished, directing the last part toward Goren's partner Alexandra Eames who actually did seem to be paying attention. "Husband says when found her, he rolled her and checked for a pulse, found none and made the call to 911. He and the daughter are in the neighbour's apartment with the EMTs." He finished.

"Savage? As in Mark Savage, the businessman?" Eames clarified.

"The one and only," Alvarez confirmed.

"Thanks Alvarez," Eames smiled a dismissive smile and moved to stand next to her partner, who was apparently in deep contemplation over an upturned table beside the body of the woman on the floor. He turned his large frame to face Eames as she came to stand next to him.

"So, Eames, if she walked in on somebody looking for something or robbing the place," He posited, "Then why is there a pool of blood underneath and spatter on the underside of this table?" He pointed to the spatter and table in question and Eames' forehead crinkled.

"Whoever killed her trashed the place afterward to try and throw us off," She sighed loudly. "Do they think we're new at this or something? Like we're paid the big bucks to walk in and go 'Oh, look, the place is trashed it must have been a robbery gone wrong lets chase that down and not actually look any deeper!'? Morons," She ranted, rubbing at her forehead in frustration and Goren turned away from her slightly to hide a grin. His partner was definitely not a morning person.

"Let's go talk to Mr Savage and his daughter. See if he's had any trouble lately." he suggested.

Mark Savage was a tidily dressed man, neat hair cut, manicured nails. Even his casual outfit of black denim jeans and an open collared, short sleeved white shirt screamed businessman. He sat on his neighbour's couch, knees wide, elbows rested on them, intermittently rubbing his hand over his face or through his hair. His nce crisp white shirt was crinkled and spotted with his wife's blood. He rubbed his hands over his face and back over his head again as he was asked to recount what had happened the previous night.

"I took my daughter out to our place at the Hamptons for the weekend. Nat was supposed to meet us there. When she didn't turn up and I couldn't get hold of her I got worried. So we headed back here around midnight," Mark spoke to Eames while Goren pretended to be intrigued by a collection of china ornaments on a shelf.

"That's your daughter there in the corner?" Eames verified, gesturing to a teenage girl sitting eerily still as she stared into space in the corner.

"Yes, that's Julianna," he told them.

"We'll need to speak to her after," Eames told him.

"Of course, of course," he nodded in agreement.

"So you headed back here when you couldn't get hold of Natalie?" Goren pulled them back to the subject at hand.

"Yes," Mark sounded slightly irritable. "I thought maybe she had gotten a migraine or something and had gone to sleep. She suffered migraines pretty badly at times," he told them.

"We got home and I went to unlock the door but it was already open. I told Julianna to wait in the hall. I opened the door and, I, I, I saw her laying there, face down in a pool of blood. I thought maybe she had collapsed and hit her head, but I got closer and realised someone had hit her and her, her head was all misshapen,"he ran his hands roughly through his hair again. "I rolled her over and tried to find a pulse. There wasn't one," Mark shook his head and swallowed hard. "Who would do this?" he asked them.

"Have you had any problems at work lately? Or had Natalie?" Eames asked.

"Nat's a trauma nurse, she works in the Emergency room," Mark replied, voice cracking a little. "Her biggest problems at work were the lousy pay and getting pissed on, spat on, and verbally abused by drunks every night."

"Ok, Mr Savage. But what about you? Anyone you've pissed off lately?" Eames asked and Mark laughed a little.

"Plenty. But I wouldn't think any of it warranted this," his voice broke again.

"Well , you might not think it did, but someone else may have thought differently," Eames told him gently.

"Right," Mark replied glumly.

"If there's anyone in particular who said, or did anything that threw you, even just a little, can you let us know?" she asked, handing him her card.

"Ok. Ok. So...You don't think it was a robbery then?" He probed and Eames immediately got the gut feeling that something about the way Mark Savage had asked that question was 'off'. She looked up and exchanged a look with her partner and saw that he had paused in his poking around, obviously thinking the same as she was.

"Not necessarily. We don't rule anything out this early in an investigation," Goren answered Mark's question, pointedly being vague, studying Savage for a reaction. He hit gold when a brief flicker of annoyance crossed the man's face. It was gone as quickly as it came. "We need to talk to your daughter, Mr Savage," Goren informed him.

"Sure, sure," the man waved at him dismissively, dropping his head into his hands. Eames and Goren exchanged a look over his head.

"Would you like to sit with her while we talk to her?" Eames asked him. He waved her off.

"Julianna's a big girl. She'll be fine," he told her. Eames eyebrows just about touched her hairline when she met Goren's eyes again. He shrugged and inclined his head toward Julianna and Eames stood up.

"Mr Savage did you have a change of clothes in your car?" she asked him.

"Yeah, why?" he asked that irritable tone back in his voice.

"Because we will need the clothes you're wearing for evidence," Eames explained. "The tech over there will take you to your car and take your clothes," she told him before walking across the room to join Goren, leaving Mark in the hands of the forensic tech.

Eames moved toward Julianna Savage with the intent to sit in the chair beside the teenager. She opted to stay standing, however, when Julianna flinched and started wringing her hands as soon Eames got within a couple of feet of her. She was a smallish kid, with a curtain of long brown hair that she seemed to be trying to retreat behind as her hands moved restlessly, wringing non-stop.

"Hi," she greeted softly, backing off and choosing to go for the extremely gentle approach.

"I'm Alex," she introduced. "That's my partner Bobby."

"Hi...I'm Lianna," the girl replied quietly, her hands speeding up a little.

"Nice to meet you Lianna," Goren replied. He moved nearer to her and sat down. Eames shook her head ever so slightly in mirth as he watched Lianna for a long moment, then mimicked her body language, canting his head down and to the side, watching her from his peripheral vision. Lianna relaxed slightly without the dirtect eye contact, her hands slowing their motions. "We would like to ask you some questions about what happened here tonight if that's ok with you?" He asked. She nodded slightly.

"So, Lianna, can you tell me what happened tonight?" He opened and Eames looked over at him, frowning at the slightly weird way he posed the question.

"We went to the Hamptons house in the afternoon. Mom was supposed to meet us there. Mom didn't come and she didn't answer her phone. Dad got worried. So we came home early. Dad went to unlock the door but it was already open. Mom was dead in the foyer...Dad called 911. The EMT's brought us here to Mrs Abbott's house, they told us to wait to talk to you," Lianna told them, her voice robotic. It was as if she was reciting a rote learned list. The only time her voice carried any sort of emotion was the flicker when she said her mom was dead. Eames' frown deepened as Lianna finally looked up and searched first Goren's, then her face as if for confirmation that she had said the right things.

"Ok," Eames easily picked up on the intrigued and concerned tones in that one word."Lianna, do you know if anyone at your Mom's work had threatened her? Or if anyone from your Dad's work threatened him?"

"No," Lianna replied, head came back up, searched both Detectives' faces and dropped back down. "That's none of my business," she replied, hands speeding up again.

"It's none of your business," Goren echoed her words. "Does your Dad tell you that Lianna?"

"Yes," she replied simply.

"Ok," Goren paused to think for a moment.

"Ok," Lianna echoed, like Goren had previously. He watched her carefully from his peripheral vision for a long moment.

"Lianna have you ever seen anyone watching your apartment?" He asked her, turning his head to look at her slightly more.

"No," she answered simply.

"No," Goren repeated.

"What about anybody near the trash cans?"

"Near the trash cans," Lianna mimicked absently. "No," she answered the question after a beat.

"Nobody weird at all?" Goren pressed, head turning slightly more toward Lianna.

"Nobody weird at all," she mimicked him again and Eames tried to get a read on where Goren was headed with this, what he was trying to figure out. But he was playing his cards close to his vest.

"Ok. Thank you Lianna," he finished up and stood, moving straight over to his partner and gently touching her elbow momentarily to guide her away from Lianna, who went back to absently staring at nothing.

-L&O:CI-


End file.
